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Corporate Responsibility And Governance of Walmart

This paper intends to assess the corporate social responsibility practices of Walmart. Social reporting practices followed by the company has been described in the paper. Moreover, changes adapted by the company over the years in terms of its CSR practices has been described in the paper. Some of the recommendations have also been provided to improvise the CSR strategy of Walmart.
Introduction
It will be instantly approved if one states that the concept of corporate governance has existed since the existence of any form of organization (Aras & Crowther, 2012). The idea of corporate governance serves as a model that encompasses the means through which organizations prepare their conduct of business conduct. Over the recent past the term corporate governance has come to the vanguard of public attention largely due to the ongoing issues related to governance that have cropped up both at the national level as well as the economic level where it concerns the organization.
At the same time governing bodies have also stated the importance of considering the needs and determinants of the society while conducting business. As has been mentioned by Adrian Cadbury, the best way of explaining social responsibility is to state that the sustained prevalence of organizations is supported by a mutual accord between the organization and the community. Sir Adrian Cadbury (2002) has also argued that the core meaning of the agreement between the business and the society is that organizations should not go after achieving their immediate profit making objectives by compromising with long term needs and requirements of the community. Therefore it can be seen that corporate social responsibility has gradually become an integral aspect of the mainstream corporate governance (Word Press, 2013).
It is with regards to this fact that the researcher will be attempting to analyze the corporate governance model and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of Walmart in order to adjudge its efficacy in the contemporary business environment. Moreover, the researcher will also be analyzing the institutional and regulatory environment in the US in order to assess its impact on the corporate governance model adopted by Walmart. Finally the researcher will be emphasizing on the changes in Walmart’s CSR practices over time in order to provide feasible recommendations.
Institutional Environment in the US
The US being a free market economy has proven to be one of the most favourable business locations for not only the home country organizations but for companies based in other countries as well. However the institutional and regulatory environment can become very daunting for the businesses that have been established here (Fagan, 2014). The last two decades have been witness to various catastrophic events that not only questioned the integrity of the companies which were involved in those events but also highlighted the loopholes that existed within the US institutional environment. The WorldCom and Enron failure as well as the financial crisis in 2007-08 revealed the ineffectiveness of the US institutional environment. It is after the unfolding of such catastrophic incidents that the US regulatory and governing bodies decided to make manifold changes in their institutional framework (Covington and Burling LLP, 2013).
The US institutional environment requires organizations to have a robust corporate governance framework in order to ensure that business operations are conducted with lucidity. The regulatory and governing authorities have clearly specified that organizational managers will have put the interest of the stakeholders ahead of their own interest (Henisz & Delios, n.d).